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Well, I'm really excited about the opportunity to watch Taipei vs Australia. Doyle is on Australia's roster. I'm not sure if he'll be in the starting lineup, but even a blurry shot of him on the bench in a baseball uniform would be exciting for me.

Looking at Sportsnet's TV schedule, I'd be tempted to watch Cuba vs Japan at 5 AM next Wednesday, and the Puerto Rican pool games are all at reasonable hours.

It's semi-meaningful baseball in March, broadcast at bizarre hours. What's not to like?

I'll be up watching the game tonight. Seems like there would have been some logic in having the defending champs Japan open the tournament in a spot of honor type thing (the way the host nation typically starts the World Cup).

Serious question though, do they even bother replacing him? I know if I'm GM-ing a team, there's no way in hell I let them take one of my better pitches out of camp this late in the process. Guys are already well into a system to get ready for the season. And with eight other relievers on the roster (most better than Perez), if you end up really needing him, you've done something wrong.

One thing to note is that there is a list of players (which hasn't been made public this year) of players who have agreed to act as back-ups if somebody gets hurt. For example, I'd read that Chase Headley is on that list in case a slugger or David Wright gets hurt, and that Jamey Carroll is prepared to work as a light-hitting-do-everything-guy if Willie Bloomquist goes down (thus officially confirming that Jamey Carroll is a poor man's Willie Bloomquist). Presumably somebody on that list will replace Perez.

Or, less likely but I guess possible, there's the chance that one of the previous players who turned it down has changed their mind (I seem to have read that Clayton Kershaw regrets how he didn't say yes- although if Kershaw were to join they'd have to make Holland or Gio Gonzalez a long reliever).

Actually, the bigger worry I have is that this Perez injury will make the Indians do everything-short-of-officially-and-publicly-restraining-him to keep Pestano from the WBC.

Really, the only reason China is even in this group is because in 2009 they played the game of their lives against a sub-par Chinese Taipei team (the CPBL didn't send all of it's best players due to a dispute between the CPBL and the Taiwanese baseball federation, if memory serves) that had a bad day.

China is getting better I think they may not be blew out by Brazil though obviously that depend on the day.

If Wang is you know.. anything close to Wang, Taiwan should do well.

Though it should be noted that interestingly, Taiwan and Korea both played poorly in exhibition games in the last couple of days. so who the hell knows. baseball on a small sample is insanely unpredictable.

I'm slightly disappointed that Taiwan isn't in the same pool as China, an upset victory by the PRC over the RoC would probably get some play on the state press organs in the mainland and might increase the general population's interest in baseball. Plus, I remember playing basketball in Wudaokuo, some of those kids would be way more suited for other sports.*

The thing about it that struck me was the intensity of the Dominican players. The naysayers can voice their opinions on the tournament but watching those guys it's hard to believe it is some kind of meaningless exhibition.

The thing about it that struck me was the intensity of the Dominican players. The naysayers can voice their opinions on the tournament but watching those guys it's hard to believe it is some kind of meaningless exhibition.

Jose, I get the feeling that the naysayers don't actually watch the WBC, so they just assume that their assumptions are reality, when they aren't.

The American players were definitely in it to win it in 2009, after they took it lightly in 2006. I don't think people get how much playing for ones country matters to a lot of players. We're going to see a lot of players who view this as one of the most important things they'll play in, and that's exactly how it should be. And hopefully when I'm watching the 13th WBC at age 70, I'll be joined in my excitement about this.

I'm no expert but the play by play guy seems to have done his homework on the Taiwanese names. He's not hesitating or struggling at all with them. I don't know I'd he actually IS pronouncing them correctly but he has me believing he is.

The stadium is really nice. What cities would get major league franchises if there was an Asian League? That's obviously crazy, the NBP and KBO would pitch a fit even with several of their franchises becoming MLB teams, and the interleague travel would be brutal even absent the 4th Latin/South American team needed to balance things, but I think there's enough baseball crazy places with high enough incomes to make it doable.